The state of AI in gaming 2026: Inaugural benchmark report
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) International Gaming Institute’s (IGI) AI Research Hub (AiR Hub), in collaboration with KPMG LLP, has released the first edition of the State of AI in Gaming 2026. This annual benchmarking series tracks how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the global gambling industry. This report was shared with SiGMA News, which this year has a thematic focus on Responsible AI.
“Society is at an inflection point with AI, and until now there has been no rigorous, independent baseline for understanding where the gambling industry stands,” said Dr. Kasra Ghaharian, IGI’s director of research and editor-in-chief of the report.
“The State of AI in Gaming is designed to fill that gap, serving as an essential resource for operators, regulators, researchers, and every stakeholder navigating adoption, ROI, and responsible integration.”
Scope and methodology
The report draws insights from 83 gambling companies and 113 regulators worldwide, a 15-year analysis of academic publications, and patent filing data and expert contributions.
It also examines AI adoption across four dimensions: industry maturity, regulatory landscape, innovation pipeline, and responsible use. The report is structured into three core sections: Industry Index, Regulatory Pulse, and Research & Advancements, with an additional section, the annual Thematic Focus, on the year’s most pressing issue.
Section 1: Industry Index
This section presents findings from a global survey of 83 gambling organisations, spanning both land-based and online sectors. Respondents included operators and suppliers, with one response per organisation. The survey examined where AI is being applied, the level of advancement, whether it is delivering value, the main challenges to scaling, and its impact on the workforce.
The industry shows ambition but remains in the early stages of adoption. For one, the average AI Maturity score is 45 out of 100, underscoring concerns around governance. Meanwhile, most companies have strategic ambitions but lack the infrastructure and expertise to scale effectively, as the report revealed.
Additionally, land-based operators lag significantly behind their online peers because of weaker strategies and legacy systems. Complex physical environments make implementation difficult, but investment in formal strategies, expertise, and infrastructure could help close the gap.
Across the industry, AI activity is concentrated in technology, security, and product innovation, accounting for nearly half of all initiatives. Generative AI is gaining traction, though, with over 80 per cent of companies using it for content and insights. However, agentic AI adoption remains limited, constrained by compliance and player safety concerns.
Cost reduction is the leading driver of AI adoption, yet returns are difficult to find. Only one in five organisations discloses meaningful ROI within two years, while one in four lacks a structured evaluation process. Without clear metrics, organisations struggle to define success or even determine whether their returns will happen, according to the report.
It also highlights additional barriers, including training gaps, resource limitations, and weak governance structures. Nearly half of the surveyed organisations report no AI-specific hiring plans, highlighting the need for stronger workforce strategies.
Section 2: Regulatory Pulse
Over the past 36 months, AI governance in gambling jurisdictions has undergone notable shifts. This report combines a global regulatory scan of legislative and policy developments with an original survey of 113 gambling regulatory executives and staff, compiled by Vixio.
Regulatory activity is most concentrated in North America and Western Europe, while Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa show little to no movement. Across active jurisdictions, the priority has been to harness automation for player protection. Belgium, Finland, Italy, and several U.S. and Canadian provinces encourage the use of AI-driven monitoring systems to safeguard players from harm.
The report also sheds light on the significant gap. Regulators lack confidence in their ability to oversee AI use among licensees and report limited awareness of how AI is currently deployed. While regulators most often identify customer-facing functions as the primary area of licensee activity, actual adoption is concentrated in technology, security, and product innovation. This disconnect hampers regulators’ ability to respond effectively and risks misaligned policy action.
One area of alignment does emerge: responsible AI practices remain underdeveloped. Regulators overwhelmingly reported being unaware of such practices among licensees. This finding mirrors the governance gap highlighted in the Maturity Index, where AI governance scored just 30 out of 100.
Section 3: Research & Advancements
The report tracks down the industry’s AI innovation channels via five lenses, namely a 15‑year biometric analysis of academic publications, conference discussions from 2020 to 2025, patent activities, trade news trends, and expert insights from Zero Labs on startup dynamics.
With academic research, insights reveal that there is a steady rise in AI‑related gambling studies, with sports betting and problem gambling overtaking poker as dominant themes.
Meanwhile, conferences mirror a jump in interest in AI integration, with sessions starting at three in 2020 and reaching 81 in 2025. Discussions centred on compliance, marketing, and CRM. Yet this contrasts with the findings in Section 1: Industry Index, where technology, security, and production emerged as the most active corporate use cases.
Patent filings highlight the growing trend. Annual AI‑related gambling patents climbed from 15 in 2010 to 100 in 2025, led by suppliers such as IGT and Light & Wonder. The United States accounted for 61.4 per cent of all global filings.
Among trade news, technology and policy dominate in coverage, signalling a maturing landscape. Additionally, product innovation is emerging as a theme, while CRM and customer support remain in focus.
Startup activity shows venture capital flowing toward companies at the intersection of data, AI, and gambling. Yet regulatory complexity favours incumbents, creating high structural barriers. Even so, advocates of data‑native startups argue that conditions for disruption are beginning to take shape.
Section 4: Responsible AI
This section of the report examines the state of Responsible AI in the gambling industry, drawing on incident tracking, regulator commentary, and survey data on industry practices.
The report notes that AI-related issues, which include deepfakes and failures in harm detection, have risen sharply since 2023. Other reported problems include overly aggressive targeting and breakdowns in player protection systems.
Meanwhile, regulators are beginning to recognise AI as a distinct area of concern. However, most currently treat it as another technology to be managed under existing guidelines rather than through dedicated frameworks.
Other findings point out that nearly one-third of companies report having no Responsible AI framework. Only two per cent have embedded Responsible AI across their organisations, despite others claiming to have practices in place; the depth of these practices is limited. Moreover, one-third describe their efforts as “starting” or “basic”, whereas another third report operationalised or integrated practices across initiatives.
Despite these declarations, self-reported maturity does not consistently translate into robust implementation across key dimensions such as transparency, accountability, and reliability. Yet the report cites data privacy as the noteworthy exception, where stronger practices are evident.
When it comes to governance and oversight, dedicated Responsible AI roles remain rare, with fewer than 20 per cent of organisations reporting AI governance positions. Oversight structures are fragmented, though. About one in four companies distribute responsibility across multiple functions, while 15 per cent report no formal oversight at all. Clear accountability mechanisms are often lacking.
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